4 Israeli teens charged for assaulting Palestinian farmers

The Jerusalem District Court indicted four Jewish teenagers on Monday for allegedly attacking Palestinian farmers in the West Bank on January 16.

The four, an 18-year-old from the central city of Petah Tikva and three minors aged 15-17, are accused of threatening Palestinian farmers with rocks and crowbars in the area of the illegal Israeli outpost of Geulat Tzion, next to the settlement of Shiloh in the northern West Bank, the Justice Ministry said.

The suspects are accused of throwing rocks at the Palestinian farmers while cursing and threatening them, in order to intimidate them into leaving the area.

The Justice Ministry said in a statement that the teenagers had no prior personal conflicts with the farmers and were looking to clash with them for ideological and nationalistic reasons.

Undercover officers in the area who saw the incident identified themselves as police and ordered the suspects to stop, but they fled back in the direction of Geulat Tzion.

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The court did not say when the teenagers were detained or how the were identified, as they were said to be wearing masks at the time of the incident.

The four suspects are being charged with aggravated assault with racist motives, aggravated attempted injury and making threats with racist motives.